Business

This week marks the launch of an important market institution – the Myanmar Institute of Directors (MIoD), the first independent, private sector-led organization promoting best corporate governance standards and practices in the country. This is a significant step in Myanmar’s ongoing market reforms and sends a strong signal to the global business community the country’s commitment to good governance and responsible business.

Though 80 per cent of the population remains unserved by Myanmar’s banking system, Wave Money aims to enjoy much higher growth over the next few years thanks to its continuous expansion of distribution network, said the firm’s top executive.

Brad Jones, chief executive officer of Wave Money, said in an exclusive interview the firm has over 1.3 million customers and is partnering more than 20,000 agents so far.

Until December, 2017, private banks have granted a Ks 319.228 billion loan to the agricultural and livestock sector and Ks 868.733 billion to small and medium-sized enterprises, said Soe Thein, Vice-governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar.

MP Kyaw Htwe representing Yangon Region Constituency-8, raised a question on the policies set for the establishment of private banks by citizens and the loan scheme for farming and SME sectors, at the session of Upper House parliament on March 14.

In a bid to empower women in Myanmar, the International Finance Corporation, a private sector arm of World Bank Group, recently launched some initiatives to ring the bell for gender equality in Southeast Asian country.

In late January and February, more than 30,000 Myanmar workers left the country, according to the figures released by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population.

In January, a total of 18,119 workers migrated to other countries. Of them, 16,988 workers left for Thailand. In addition, Myanmar workers are migrating to Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, UAE and Qatar.

Until March 2 of this fiscal year, Myanmar has earned US$ 179 million from the export of 0.136 million tonne of rubber, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Local rubber price is declining as despite a decline in rubber price in the global market. Currently, local rubber price is Ks 760 per pound, according to Myanmar Rubber Growers and Exporters Association.

The government will seek a loan of 30.469 billion yen (about US$270 million) from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to improve agricultural income of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation and the Ministry of Construction, said Hla Kyaw, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation during a meeting of the Union Parliament held in Nay Pyi Taw on March 15.

He said a joint feasibility study had started in Sagaing Region since September 2016 to implement a project for promoting agriculture income.

SGX-listed Yoma Strategic Holding, a joint company of First Myanmar Investment Co. Ltd. (FMI), has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing platform Grab on March 12 to upgrade the fleet of Grab taxis in Myanmar, announced the Yoma Strategic Holding.

Around 70,000 taxis are currently running in Yangon and regular customers acknowledged most of the taxis are needed to upgrade, according to the announcement.